India has successfully launched an Israeli spy satellite into orbit, officials at the Sriharikota space station in southern India say.
The Israeli press is reporting that the satellite will improve Israel's ability to monitor Iran's military activities.
Indian officilas that given these sensitivities, the operation was secret and carried out under tight security.
The Tecsar satellite - sometimes referred to as the Polaris - was put into space on Monday morning.
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It is considered to be one of the most advanced spy satellites that India has put into orbit to date.
Correspondents say the launch was the second commercial mission on behalf of another country that has been carried out by the Indian Space Research Organisation.
"It was a grand success," an unnamed official told the AFP news agency from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
Israeli newspapers reported that both Israeli and Indian space engineers were at the launch, and that 80 minutes afterwards, the Israel Aerospace Industries' (IAI) ground station began receiving Tecsar's first signals.
(BBC)
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